Tourists flock to Sydney for NY eve

SYDNEY'S famous fireworks have attracted not only locals, but brought in overseas visitors keen to experience New Year's Eve down under.

American Melissa Sjostedt says she's wanted to see the fireworks on the bridge since reading about it in a four-page spread in the National Geographic 10 years ago.

"Ever since that I've always wanted to see this for real, live, in person," the 30-year-old from Florida told AAP from Dawes Point Reserve.

Mathieu Herman, 30, from New York City, said he'd made the trip to Australia specifically for New Year's Eve.

"I saw it last year on TV and it looked fabulous. I said to myself 'it's something I've just got to do'.

"I love Australia and if the fireworks are as good as they're supposed to be, I might move here."

Sisters Liann, 25, and Joanne, 19, from Flintshire in North Wales, got to Lady Macquarie's Chair at 10.30am to snag the best view of the fireworks.

"It's been a cracker day so far except for the achey bum, I should have brought more pillows," said Liann as she reclined, drink in hand, on a beach towel.

"It's our first time in Australia so we don't know what to expect.

"But it's got to be better than back home, it's minus five (degrees) there at the moment."

Essig Roland and his girlfriend Marika Rauecker, both from Austria, were anxiously waiting at 7pm (AEDT) just to get into the packed venue.

"What can you do but just stand here and wait" said Mr Roland, who'd been queueing for an hour.

Pop princess Kylie Minogue, chosen as the event's creative ambassador, was a big drawcard for the couple making the trip down under for New Year's this year.

"We're big Kylie fans we've already been to her concert in Austria," he said.

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Shark sightings clear SA beaches

SOUTH Australian swimmers have had a New Year's scare with shark sightings forcing the closure of two popular beaches.

Police said Moana Beach, south of Adelaide, had been evacuated and closed on Monday evening (ACDT) after a 2.5-metre shark was spotted 100 metres from the shore.

A short time later, nearby Christies Beach was closed following another sighting of a 2.5-metre shark.

Police said it was not known if it was the same animal in both sightings.

AAP pbc/a

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Thousands gather on Sydney harbour for NYE

Sydney's lord mayor says the city is spending $6.6 million on its New Year's Eve event. Source: AAP

THOUSANDS of revellers have gathered at Sydney's sparkling harbour to take part in the party that kicks off New Year's celebrations the world over.

Temporary cyclone fences surround the city's best vantage points as people armed with fold-up chairs, picnic blankets, nibbles and booze stake a claim.

Lucky types are bobbing on boats in the harbour while others are happy to simply line the sides of roads, with jubilant partygoers spilling from pubs onto the streets.

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore says about 1.5 million spectators are expected to line Sydney Harbour to watch the fireworks.

Another two million Australians will catch the $6.6 million event on their teles, as will at least one billion people worldwide.

"This is really putting Australia on the map in terms of welcoming people to the New Year," Ms Moore said.

Pop princess Kylie Minogue, chosen as the event's creative ambassador, developed the theme 'Embrace' and chose its colour scheme and soundtrack.

She will be honoured with a musical-note firework which will be one of 100,000 individual pyrotechnic creations this year, including koala, octopus and hand images in lights.

Minogue said being home to host New Year's Eve was a dream come true.

"It's been a huge year for me and the finish line is tonight," she said, adding that her boyfriend was the first in line for a hug come midnight.

Minogue said her 25 years in the music industry hadn't been easy and had its ups and downs, but it had been "an amazing ride" overall.

Other celebs who have headed Down Under to ring in the New Year include Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx and Jonah Hill.

They will be joined at The Star casino's Marquee Nightclub by Gossip Girl heart throb Chace Crawford, Glee's Matthew Morrison and Arrow actor Colton Haynes.

Out on the streets, more than 3000 police officers will be on crowd control.

"If you act up, you are going to be arrested and charged. There's no view of the fireworks from a police cell," warned Assistant Commissioner Alan Clarke.

At Mrs Macquaries Point, 6283 people had already claimed a spot by midday while the super keen began queuing for the panoramic views of Sydney Harbour and the city skyline 24 hours before the gates of the Botanic Gardens opened at 10am.

Many have queued for hours under the sun.

"It's a much younger crowd than usual, a lot of backpackers rather than families like previous years," said Karla Davies from the Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust.

American Melissa Sjostedt said she had wanted to see the fireworks on the bridge since reading about it in a four-page spread in the National Geographic 10 years ago.

"Ever since that I've always wanted to see this for real, live, in person," the 30-year-old from Florida told AAP from Dawes Point Reserve.

People going to the CBD to watch the fireworks have been urged to leave their cars behind and take public transport, with road closures in place and extra trains and buses laid on for the night.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge will be closed in both directions from 11pm on Monday to 1am on Tuesday.

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UK bishop urges against gay marriage

THE head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has urged followers to write to their representatives in Parliament to oppose the government's plans to allow gay marriage.

In a letter read to congregations over the weekend, the Archbishop of Westminister, Vincent Nichols, called for Catholics to express their views "clearly, calmly and forcefully."

Nichols who is president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales says he is concerned about how a change in the law would affect what children are taught about marriage.

He says he wants members of Parliament to "defend, not change, the bond of man and woman in marriage as the essential element of the vision of the family."

Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative-led government plans to introduce legislation in January to allow gay marriages. Recent opinion polls suggest a large majority of the public supports the change.

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Thousands pack Darling Harbour

THOUSANDS of people have packed Sydney's Darling Harbour with a record number of families, tourists and partygoers turning out for the fireworks.

Event organisers estimate a record 130,000 people will pack in by the 9pm display.

"There is definitely more people here than last year," organiser Sal Sharah told AAP.

"We've had great weather and a great lead up to this evening.

"Darling Harbour presents something quite unique for New Years.

"It's very family friendly and all managed access and easily accessible."

Security was tight with hundreds of police officers and rangers roaming the area, hundreds more security personnel manning entry gates and ambulance officers stationed near emergency areas.

Marianne from Mount Druitt said she'd been staking her spot by the harbour steps with children Jasmine and Kyle since 1pm.

She said she'd be leaving immediately after the family fireworks.

"I did it once before and they didn't make it to the midnight fireworks, so it's just easy," she told AAP.

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Woman accused of NYC subway murder

A woman has been charged with murdering an immigrant by pushing him in front of a NY subway train. Source: AAP

A 31-YEAR-OLD New York woman is scheduled to appear before a judge after being charged with murder as a hate crime for shoving a Hindu man to his death in front of an oncoming subway train.

Erika Menendez of the Bronx borough was motivated by hatred of Muslims and Hindus, according to the Queens District Attorney's Office.

"I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims. Ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers, I've been beating them up," she told police.

Menendez, who is awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on Sunday, faces from 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

The victim, 46-year-old Sunando Sen, was born in India and raised Hindu, a roommate told The New York Times.

The incident took place late Thursday at a station on the number 7 line in Queens.

Menendez - who was talking to herself as she paced along the platform, according to witnesses - pushed the man as the train was pulling into the station. He apparently had his back to Menendez and did not see her.

Police released surveillance camera video footage via Twitter showing a woman running from the scene.

"The defendant is accused of committing what is every subway commuter's worst nightmare - being suddenly and senselessly pushed into the path of an oncoming train," Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement.

"The victim was allegedly shoved from behind and had no chance to defend himself. Beyond that, the hateful remarks allegedly made by the defendant and which precipitated the defendant's actions can never be tolerated by a civilised society."

Sen's death was eerily similar to that of a 58-year-old man killed on December 3 when he was pushed on to the tracks during a fight with a deranged man at a Manhattan subway station. The assailant, later identified as 30-year-old Naeem Davis, has been charged with murder. Davis is homeless.

A New York Post front page picture of the man on the tracks a split second before he was killed by the oncoming train provoked public fury as to why no one helped him - and why the tabloid newspaper published the photo.

Several million people use the New York City subway system every day, but incidents of this kind are rare.

Before the December 3 death, the last time someone was pushed on to the rails and hit by a train was in 2010. The woman survived.

Thursday night's incident appeared to have scared many New York subway riders as they kept closer to the walls as trains rolled into station.

"It's horrible," said 46-year-old city resident Elena Rodriguez. "We're feeling so insecure now to be in the subway."

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IMF, EU seek less drastic cuts

THE International Monetary Fund and European Commission officials have encouraged France and its eurozone partners not to fixate on deficit reduction targets if it would exacerbate the bloc's debt crisis.

The head of an IMF mission in France, Edward Gardner, urged officials in Paris last week to consider their 2013 budget targets "in a broader European context".

The IMF and the EU Commission expect the French public deficit to amount to 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) next year.

They do not believe France can reach its three per cent goal, the eurozone limit, without additional measures that could aggravate an already tenuous economic situation.

"The credibility of the medium-term orientation policy" was more important than a specific deficit target, Gardner told reporters.

Loosening the criteria would "be more effective, more credible in a coordinated fashion" across the 17-nation eurozone, he said.

In Portugal the public deficit fell at the end of the third quarter to 5.6 per cent of GDP from 6.7 per cent at the same point a year earlier, while neighbouring Spain has promised to slash its deficit to three per cent by 2014 from a blowout shortfall equal to 9.4 per cent of output last year.

Germany expects its budget to be in balance this year, two years ahead of schedule, but IMF head Christine Lagarde has suggested that Berlin ease up a bit in its drive for healthy finances.

"Germany ... and others ... can allow themselves to go a little more slowly than others in the push to straighten out their public finances," Lagarde told the German weekly Die Zeit in comments published last week.

Her call echoed other European voices that are now arguing for greater emphasis on growth rather than austerity measures.

"The IMF is beginning to understand that the French situation has become dangerous," economist Marc Touati at the ACDefi consulting group said. Unemployment is climbing and the economy is still struggling, he said.

The IMF was "trying to prepare public opinion" for missed government targets, Touati said.

On Tuesday, the EU's "fiscal compact", a hard-won step towards tighter economic coordination agreed as part of efforts to tame the debilitating debt crisis, takes effect.

Finalised in March, 25 of the 27 EU member states accepted a "balanced budget rule" in the compact to ensure that governments would no longer run the massive budget deficits which drove the debt crisis and nearly sank the euro.

But as the European debt crisis drags on and economies flounder, the idea of allowing governments more time to straighten out their finances has gained ground.

European Economic Affairs Commissioner Ollie Rehn said last week that France needed more reforms rather than more austerity.

"Once you have a credible medium-term budget strategy, backed up by reforms, you can have a slower adjustment," Rehn told French daily Le Monde.

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Friends recall Indian gang-rape victim

SHE was due to marry her boyfriend in a matter of weeks, was the apple of her father's eye and her friends were convinced she would achieve great things after completing her medical studies.

While India has seen an outpouring of grief for the 23-year-old who suffered fatal injuries when she was gang-raped on December 16, those who actually knew her paint a portrait of a young woman who was both in love and much loved.

Although not formally engaged, it was well-known by her friends that she was planning to marry the boyfriend who also suffered serious injuries in the same attack that would ultimately lead to her death.

Meena Rai said that she had been shopping with the unnamed victim for wedding outfits and the contents of a wedding box.

"She was supposed to get married in February to the same guy who was attacked on the bus with her," said Rai, who lived next door in Mahavir Enclave, a neighbourhood in southwestern New Delhi.

"They had made all the wedding preparations and had planned a wedding party in Delhi," she told AFP.

Another friend who attended the cremation ceremony on Sunday confirmed that the wedding was due to take place in a matter of weeks.

"We know that she was going to get married in February," Usha Rai (no relation) told AFP. "The whole neighbourhood was excited about it."

The young couple had spent the evening together at a mall watching The Life of Pi before they boarded a bus they thought would take them home.

According to reports, the frenzied attack on the pair began when the boyfriend objected to taunts about why an unmarried woman was out so late.

The gang clubbed him with an iron rod before they then turned on her.

The everyday image of a young couple enjoying a night out at the movies has been cited by many Indians to explain why they have been able to relate so much to the plight of someone whose name they will never know.

But others have identified with the backstory of a hardworking student whose family hail from rural India, but who was looking to make a name for herself as a young urban professional with the eager backing of her proud parents.

Her parents sold their small piece of land in rural Uttar Pradesh in order to fund their daughter's education, often limiting their own meals to little more than rotis with namak (bread with salt), according to friends.

In a frontpage tribute, The Hindustan Times said that she was "invariably among the top students in her class and was determined to earn well and repay her father who had sold his ancestral land to fund her studies".

Employed as a loader at Delhi's international airport, the father used to say he was "investing in my daughter's future as she will be the one who takes care of me when I get old", according to Meena Rai.

Her childhood was mainly spent in a one-bedroom flat near the airport that she shared with her two brothers as well as her parents.

A younger cousin still living back in the parental village in Uttar Pradesh told the Times of India how the young medical student had been an "inspiration".

"Seeing her do well, I was determined to study as well," she said.

Other residents of the village recalled a young woman whose passion to succeed in medicine shone through when she paid a visit back home.

"Hers was a story of charming ordinariness, of aspiration and hard work, of pleasure in life's little joys," said the Hindustan Times.

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Israel indicts ex-minister Lieberman

ISRAEL'S former foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has been formally indicted on charges of breach of trust and fraud, allegations that could hurt his political future if he is convicted.

Lieberman resigned earlier this month after he was informed of the pending charges. The Justice Ministry later revised the wording, though not the charges, and said it filed the indictment in a Jerusalem court on Sunday.

Lieberman is accused of advancing a former ambassador after he relayed information to the foreign minister about a criminal investigation into his business dealings. Lieberman denies wrongdoing.

His Yisrael Beiteinu party is running with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud in the January 22 election, and he is expected to serve as an MP in the next parliament.

In other political news, Israel's Supreme Court unanimously rejected an election committee's attempt to disqualify an Arab MP from running for parliament again next month because she took part in a flotilla that tried to breach Israel's naval blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

The MP, Hanin Zoabi, enraged many Israelis by joining the Turkish-led flotilla, which was stormed by Israeli naval commandos who clashed with pro-Palestinian activists, killing nine. The Israeli military says the soldiers acted in self-defence after being attacked on the deck.

Zoabi was nearly assaulted in parliament by another MP and subsequently was stripped of some of her parliamentary privileges.

Earlier this month, an Israeli elections committee voted to disqualify her from running in next month's election. She appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, which overturned it, as it has rejected the committee's attempts in previous years to bar certain Arab candidates from running.

The court said in its ruling that it would release its reason for overturning the decision at a later date. Under Israel's election law, the court had to issue its ruling by Sunday.

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Missing Georgian soldier shot dead

A GEORGIAN soldier who went missing in Afghanistan this month has been found dead in an abandoned mud house with multiple bullets to his body.

Police searching for Sergeant Giorgi Kikadze found his body in a village compound in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province, district governor Nemat Khan told AFP on Sunday.

"He was shot by bullets and was found in an empty house," Khan said. "We showed the body to the Georgian officials from ISAF (International Security Assistance Force). They identified it."

Georgian Defence Minister Irakli Alasania and ISAF officials confirmed the discovery on Saturday but gave no further details.

Kikadze went missing on December 19 in Helmand, a southern province at the heart of the Taliban insurgency.

He is believed to be the first soldier from the NATO-led international force to have gone missing since Bowe Bergdahl, from the US, was taken on June 30, 2009, in the southeastern province of Paktika.

Talks between the US and Taliban insurgents over a possible prisoner exchange involving Bergdahl failed this year.

Kikadze's death took to 19 the number of Georgian troops killed in Afghanistan over the past three years.

Georgia has 1570 troops serving in the country, making the small Caucasus country of 4.5 million the largest non-NATO contributor to ISAF.

President Mikheil Saakashvili is due to visit Georgian troops serving in Afghanistan's Helmand province for New Year celebrations on Monday.

There are now about 100,000 US-led NATO troops fighting a decade-long Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan.

Despite the stubborn insurgency, war-weary international forces are seeking to hand control of security to Afghan forces by withdrawing their combat troops by the end of 2014.

Georgia is willing to continue deploying troops to assist local security forces after the NATO-led combat mission formally ends.

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Woman accused of NYC subway murder

A woman has been charged with murdering an immigrant by pushing him in front of a NY subway train. Source: AAP

A 31-YEAR-OLD New York woman is scheduled to appear before a judge after being charged with murder as a hate crime for shoving a Hindu man to his death in front of an oncoming subway train.

Erika Menendez of the Bronx borough was motivated by hatred of Muslims and Hindus, according to the Queens District Attorney's Office.

"I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims. Ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers, I've been beating them up," she told police.

Menendez, who is awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on Sunday, faces from 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

The victim, 46-year-old Sunando Sen, was born in India and raised Hindu, a roommate told The New York Times.

The incident took place late Thursday at a station on the number 7 line in Queens.

Menendez - who was talking to herself as she paced along the platform, according to witnesses - pushed the man as the train was pulling into the station. He apparently had his back to Menendez and did not see her.

Police released surveillance camera video footage via Twitter showing a woman running from the scene.

"The defendant is accused of committing what is every subway commuter's worst nightmare - being suddenly and senselessly pushed into the path of an oncoming train," Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement.

"The victim was allegedly shoved from behind and had no chance to defend himself. Beyond that, the hateful remarks allegedly made by the defendant and which precipitated the defendant's actions can never be tolerated by a civilised society."

Sen's death was eerily similar to that of a 58-year-old man killed on December 3 when he was pushed on to the tracks during a fight with a deranged man at a Manhattan subway station. The assailant, later identified as 30-year-old Naeem Davis, has been charged with murder. Davis is homeless.

A New York Post front page picture of the man on the tracks a split second before he was killed by the oncoming train provoked public fury as to why no one helped him - and why the tabloid newspaper published the photo.

Several million people use the New York City subway system every day, but incidents of this kind are rare.

Before the December 3 death, the last time someone was pushed on to the rails and hit by a train was in 2010. The woman survived.

Thursday night's incident appeared to have scared many New York subway riders as they kept closer to the walls as trains rolled into station.

"It's horrible," said 46-year-old city resident Elena Rodriguez. "We're feeling so insecure now to be in the subway."

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IMF, EU seek less drastic cuts

THE International Monetary Fund and European Commission officials have encouraged France and its eurozone partners not to fixate on deficit reduction targets if it would exacerbate the bloc's debt crisis.

The head of an IMF mission in France, Edward Gardner, urged officials in Paris last week to consider their 2013 budget targets "in a broader European context".

The IMF and the EU Commission expect the French public deficit to amount to 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) next year.

They do not believe France can reach its three per cent goal, the eurozone limit, without additional measures that could aggravate an already tenuous economic situation.

"The credibility of the medium-term orientation policy" was more important than a specific deficit target, Gardner told reporters.

Loosening the criteria would "be more effective, more credible in a coordinated fashion" across the 17-nation eurozone, he said.

In Portugal the public deficit fell at the end of the third quarter to 5.6 per cent of GDP from 6.7 per cent at the same point a year earlier, while neighbouring Spain has promised to slash its deficit to three per cent by 2014 from a blowout shortfall equal to 9.4 per cent of output last year.

Germany expects its budget to be in balance this year, two years ahead of schedule, but IMF head Christine Lagarde has suggested that Berlin ease up a bit in its drive for healthy finances.

"Germany ... and others ... can allow themselves to go a little more slowly than others in the push to straighten out their public finances," Lagarde told the German weekly Die Zeit in comments published last week.

Her call echoed other European voices that are now arguing for greater emphasis on growth rather than austerity measures.

"The IMF is beginning to understand that the French situation has become dangerous," economist Marc Touati at the ACDefi consulting group said. Unemployment is climbing and the economy is still struggling, he said.

The IMF was "trying to prepare public opinion" for missed government targets, Touati said.

On Tuesday, the EU's "fiscal compact", a hard-won step towards tighter economic coordination agreed as part of efforts to tame the debilitating debt crisis, takes effect.

Finalised in March, 25 of the 27 EU member states accepted a "balanced budget rule" in the compact to ensure that governments would no longer run the massive budget deficits which drove the debt crisis and nearly sank the euro.

But as the European debt crisis drags on and economies flounder, the idea of allowing governments more time to straighten out their finances has gained ground.

European Economic Affairs Commissioner Ollie Rehn said last week that France needed more reforms rather than more austerity.

"Once you have a credible medium-term budget strategy, backed up by reforms, you can have a slower adjustment," Rehn told French daily Le Monde.

17.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

Friends recall Indian gang-rape victim

SHE was due to marry her boyfriend in a matter of weeks, was the apple of her father's eye and her friends were convinced she would achieve great things after completing her medical studies.

While India has seen an outpouring of grief for the 23-year-old who suffered fatal injuries when she was gang-raped on December 16, those who actually knew her paint a portrait of a young woman who was both in love and much loved.

Although not formally engaged, it was well-known by her friends that she was planning to marry the boyfriend who also suffered serious injuries in the same attack that would ultimately lead to her death.

Meena Rai said that she had been shopping with the unnamed victim for wedding outfits and the contents of a wedding box.

"She was supposed to get married in February to the same guy who was attacked on the bus with her," said Rai, who lived next door in Mahavir Enclave, a neighbourhood in southwestern New Delhi.

"They had made all the wedding preparations and had planned a wedding party in Delhi," she told AFP.

Another friend who attended the cremation ceremony on Sunday confirmed that the wedding was due to take place in a matter of weeks.

"We know that she was going to get married in February," Usha Rai (no relation) told AFP. "The whole neighbourhood was excited about it."

The young couple had spent the evening together at a mall watching The Life of Pi before they boarded a bus they thought would take them home.

According to reports, the frenzied attack on the pair began when the boyfriend objected to taunts about why an unmarried woman was out so late.

The gang clubbed him with an iron rod before they then turned on her.

The everyday image of a young couple enjoying a night out at the movies has been cited by many Indians to explain why they have been able to relate so much to the plight of someone whose name they will never know.

But others have identified with the backstory of a hardworking student whose family hail from rural India, but who was looking to make a name for herself as a young urban professional with the eager backing of her proud parents.

Her parents sold their small piece of land in rural Uttar Pradesh in order to fund their daughter's education, often limiting their own meals to little more than rotis with namak (bread with salt), according to friends.

In a frontpage tribute, The Hindustan Times said that she was "invariably among the top students in her class and was determined to earn well and repay her father who had sold his ancestral land to fund her studies".

Employed as a loader at Delhi's international airport, the father used to say he was "investing in my daughter's future as she will be the one who takes care of me when I get old", according to Meena Rai.

Her childhood was mainly spent in a one-bedroom flat near the airport that she shared with her two brothers as well as her parents.

A younger cousin still living back in the parental village in Uttar Pradesh told the Times of India how the young medical student had been an "inspiration".

"Seeing her do well, I was determined to study as well," she said.

Other residents of the village recalled a young woman whose passion to succeed in medicine shone through when she paid a visit back home.

"Hers was a story of charming ordinariness, of aspiration and hard work, of pleasure in life's little joys," said the Hindustan Times.

17.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

Israel indicts ex-minister Lieberman

ISRAEL'S former foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has been formally indicted on charges of breach of trust and fraud, allegations that could hurt his political future if he is convicted.

Lieberman resigned earlier this month after he was informed of the pending charges. The Justice Ministry later revised the wording, though not the charges, and said it filed the indictment in a Jerusalem court on Sunday.

Lieberman is accused of advancing a former ambassador after he relayed information to the foreign minister about a criminal investigation into his business dealings. Lieberman denies wrongdoing.

His Yisrael Beiteinu party is running with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud in the January 22 election, and he is expected to serve as an MP in the next parliament.

In other political news, Israel's Supreme Court unanimously rejected an election committee's attempt to disqualify an Arab MP from running for parliament again next month because she took part in a flotilla that tried to breach Israel's naval blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

The MP, Hanin Zoabi, enraged many Israelis by joining the Turkish-led flotilla, which was stormed by Israeli naval commandos who clashed with pro-Palestinian activists, killing nine. The Israeli military says the soldiers acted in self-defence after being attacked on the deck.

Zoabi was nearly assaulted in parliament by another MP and subsequently was stripped of some of her parliamentary privileges.

Earlier this month, an Israeli elections committee voted to disqualify her from running in next month's election. She appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, which overturned it, as it has rejected the committee's attempts in previous years to bar certain Arab candidates from running.

The court said in its ruling that it would release its reason for overturning the decision at a later date. Under Israel's election law, the court had to issue its ruling by Sunday.

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Missing Georgian soldier shot dead

A GEORGIAN soldier who went missing in Afghanistan this month has been found dead in an abandoned mud house with multiple bullets to his body.

Police searching for Sergeant Giorgi Kikadze found his body in a village compound in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province, district governor Nemat Khan told AFP on Sunday.

"He was shot by bullets and was found in an empty house," Khan said. "We showed the body to the Georgian officials from ISAF (International Security Assistance Force). They identified it."

Georgian Defence Minister Irakli Alasania and ISAF officials confirmed the discovery on Saturday but gave no further details.

Kikadze went missing on December 19 in Helmand, a southern province at the heart of the Taliban insurgency.

He is believed to be the first soldier from the NATO-led international force to have gone missing since Bowe Bergdahl, from the US, was taken on June 30, 2009, in the southeastern province of Paktika.

Talks between the US and Taliban insurgents over a possible prisoner exchange involving Bergdahl failed this year.

Kikadze's death took to 19 the number of Georgian troops killed in Afghanistan over the past three years.

Georgia has 1570 troops serving in the country, making the small Caucasus country of 4.5 million the largest non-NATO contributor to ISAF.

President Mikheil Saakashvili is due to visit Georgian troops serving in Afghanistan's Helmand province for New Year celebrations on Monday.

There are now about 100,000 US-led NATO troops fighting a decade-long Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan.

Despite the stubborn insurgency, war-weary international forces are seeking to hand control of security to Afghan forces by withdrawing their combat troops by the end of 2014.

Georgia is willing to continue deploying troops to assist local security forces after the NATO-led combat mission formally ends.

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Stolen macaws found in midnight raid

Two rare and valuable birds stolen from a wildlife park have been recovered from a Sydney backyard. Source: AAP

TWO rare and valuable birds stolen from a wildlife park over Christmas have been recovered from a Sydney backyard.

Some time after 9.30pm (AEDT) on Christmas Eve, an unknown number of offenders broke into Featherdale Wildlife Park on Kildare Road, in the west Sydney suburb of Doonside.

They made off with 10 birds including two blue and yellow macaws worth $6000 each, two red-tailed black cockatoos, and six white-breasted ground doves.

The birds were not missed until 4.30am on Christmas Day.

Police received a tip-off and visited an Auburn house after midnight on Friday night.

There, they say they found the two stolen macaws in a backyard aviary.

The other birds were not found.

Police say they have spoken with the home's residents and no charges have been laid, but inquiries are continuing.

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Apple drops patent claims against Samsung

Samsung has reportedly agreed not to sell the Galaxy S III Mini in the United States. Source: AAP

APPLE has agreed to drop its patent claims against Samsung's Galaxy S III Mini after the South Korean rival said it would not sell the gadget in the United States, a court filing shows.

The announcement is the latest twist in a patent battle between the two tech titans.

Last month, Apple asked that a series of Samsung products - including the Galaxy S III - be added to the patent infringement suit between the mobile giants.

"Apple will agree to withdraw without prejudice its request to include the Galaxy S III Mini in this case given Samsung's representation that it is not making, using, selling, offering to sell or importing that product into the United States," the company said in its latest federal court filing in San Jose, California.

Samsung, the world's top mobile and smartphone maker, was ordered by a US jury in August to pay Apple $US1.05 billion ($A1.02 billion) in damages for illegally copying iPhone and iPad features for its flagship Galaxy S smartphones.

It has appealed the ruling, depicting the verdict as "a loss" for consumers and contending that Apple had "manipulated" the patent system.

Since then, two separate rulings by courts in Japan and the Netherlands have dismissed Apple's claims of patent infringement.

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Madonna builds ten schools in Malawi

Madonna has built 10 primary schools in Malawi during 2012, her charity has announced. Source: AAP

FORMER Material Girl Madonna has built 10 primary schools in Malawi during 2012, her charity announced.

Two years after abandoning a $US15 million ($A14.52 million) girls academy, the pop diva said on Friday projects in 2012 would educate 4871 children in the tiny southern African country.

The projects were carried out by her charity Raising Malawi and the global non-profit buildOn.

"I am overjoyed that my commitment along with buildOn's to help educate the children of Malawi has come to fruition," Madonna said in a statement issued by her charity.

"In a country where girls have little opportunity for education, it's additionally inspiring to know that more than half the students attending will be young girls.

"The fact that more than 4800 children in Malawi will get to go to school next year is a tremendous step forward for their individual growth and the growth of Malawi," Madonna added.

The schools, which had been scheduled to be built over 18 months, were completed six months ahead of schedule.

The charity said six of the schools are already in use and all 10 would be up and running in January 2013 for the first day of school in the New Year.

Madonna is no stranger to Malawi.

In 2006 she adopted toddler David Banda under controversial circumstances and two years later adopted another child, Mercy James.

Her charity, Raising Malawi, has poured millions of dollars in support of orphanages and a network of orphan care service providers.

Malawi is ranked by the UN Human Development Index as one of the world's 20 least developed countries and 39 per cent of its 13 million citizens live below the poverty line, on less than a dollar a day.

UNICEF estimates that only 26 per cent of boys and 16 per cent of girls complete primary school because of poverty and the long distances travelled to reach schools.

Madonna controversially stopped the construction of the state-of-the-art $US15 million Raising Malawi Academy for Girls-RMAG- in Chinkhota village, 15 kilometres from the administrative capital Lilongwe, after it was mired in allegations of financial mismanagement.

The academy, styled on the lines of the one built by TV host Oprah Winfrey in South Africa, had been meant to offer 500 scholarships to girls from poor backgrounds and groom them into future leaders.

In abandoning the project, Madonna said the academy would not be adequate as two-thirds of the girls were not educated beyond primary school. Instead, she said, she wanted to reach "thousands and not hundreds of girls" by constructing several schools.

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Second man charged for Christmas murder

A second man has been charged following the Christmas Day murder of a man north of Brisbane. Source: AAP

A SECOND man has been charged following the Christmas Day murder of a man north of Brisbane.

Police said a 31-year-old man from Kippa Ring had been charged with one count of murder after a 43-year-old man died following a disturbance at a Morayfield home just after 9.30pm (AEST) on Tuesday.

The victim was found unconscious in the driveway of the property and later died in hospital.

The accused man is expected to face Brisbane Magistrates Court later on Saturday.

A 20-year-old man from Deception Bay has already been charged with murder and faced Caboolture Magistrates Court on Friday.

It's believed police are searching for up to four people who may have been involved in the man's death and their investigations are ongoing.

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Man drowns at NSW Central Coast beach

A MAN has drowned at a beach on the NSW Central Coast after getting caught in a rip.

Police say the 27-year-old man was one of six people swimming at Budgewoi beach when four members of the group got into trouble because of strong currents at about 5.25pm (AEDT) on Saturday.

Most of the group were helped out of the water by friends but the 27-year-old could not be reached.

He was later taken from the water by beachgoers but could not be revived.

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Diplomats quit Central African Republic

Central African Republic President Francois Bozize has sought foreign aid to stop rebel forces. Source: AAP

BANGUI, Central African Republic, Dec 28 AFP - The United States has evacuated its embassy in the Central African Republic as the nation's leader appealed for French and US help after rebels seized large parts of the mineral-rich country.

The United States said it had not cut diplomatic ties with the beleaguered government but warned US citizens not to travel to the chronically unstable country while unrest continues.

The United Nations is also pulling out its staff as rebel fighters get closer to the capital Bangui.

"We ask our French cousins and the United States of America, the great powers, to help us to push back the rebels... to allow for dialogue in Libreville to resolve the current crisis," President Francois Bozize told thousands of supporters at a rally in Bangui.

"There is no question of allowing them to kill Central Africans, of letting them destroy houses and pillage, and holding a knife to our throats to demand dialogue," said Bozize, who seized power in a coup in 2003.

"It is a plot against the Central African Republic, a plot against its people."

Organisers said 10,000 government supporters converged on central Bangui which a rally leader described as "our Tahrir Square".

Central African Republic, with a population of about 4.5 million, has seen frequent coups and mutinies since independence from France in 1960.

The rebel coalition known as Seleka - which means "alliance" - has seized four regional capitals, including a diamond mining hub, since fighting began on December 10.

While it says it has no plans to move on the capital, a statement last week announcing it had suspended its advance was followed within a day by news of further rebel victories.

France is vowing not to intervene.

President Francois Hollande said on Thursday that France would not use its troops stationed in the country to interfere in the conflict.

"If we are present, it is not to protect a regime, it is to protect our nationals and our interests, and in no way to intervene in the internal affairs of a country," Hollande said.

"Those days are gone."

A French foreign ministry spokesman nevertheless condemned "the continued hostility by the rebel groups" and said the crisis should be resolved through dialogue.

On Wednesday, demonstrators angry at France's failure to intervene tore down the flag at its embassy in Bangui and broke the windows of the building.

One French national said the population feared looting and a breakdown of order.

"It would not take much for things to explode," she said.

France has about 250 soldiers based at Bangui airport providing technical support to a peacekeeping mission run by the central African economic bloc ECCAS.

General Jean-Felix Akaga, commander of the regional central African military force known as FOMAC, said Bangui was "fully secured" by its troops, adding that others will arrive to help reinforce the mission.

The rebels are accusing Bozize and his government of having failed to respect the terms of peace deals signed between 2007-2011.

As the ill-equipped Central African army proved little challenge to the insurgents, Bozize asked for help from neighbouring Chad. The Chadian troops are the only real obstacle to the rebels, who are now at least 300 kilometres away.

The United Nations mission in the country has been working to help the government overcome more than a decade of strife.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has condemned the rebel attacks while Washington expressed "deep concern".

Nassour Ouaidou, the head of ECCAS, told AFP the group was trying to broker a truce.

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Asian markets up despite US fiscal woes

ASIAN shares have risen on hopes of a last-minute deal to avert the US fiscal cliff, despite warnings from a leading Democrat that an agreement is unlikely just days before a year-end deadline.

Expectations for more aggressive monetary easing by the Bank of Japan continued to weigh on the yen, which was sitting at more than two-year lows against the dollar.

In its last trading day of the year Tokyo's Nikkei on Friday climbed 0.70 per cent to highs not seen since before last year's March 11 quake-tsunami disaster. The index ended 72.20 points up at 10,395.18. It rose 22.9 per cent for the year.

Sydney gained 0.50 per cent, or 23.3 points, to close at 4,671.3 and Seoul closed up 0.49 per cent, or 9.70 points, to 1,997.05.

Hong Kong added 0.21 per cent, or 46.81 points, to end at 22,666.59, while Shanghai put on 1.24 per cent, or 27.35 points, to 2,233.25.

US politicians have until Tuesday to come up with a deficit-cutting budget that is less painful than the steep tax hikes and swingeing spending cuts that most economists say will tip the country into recession.

With time counting down, Republicans and Democrats are blaming each other for the lack of progress on a deal, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid saying: "I have to be very honest, I don't know time-wise how it can happen now."

President Barack Obama cut short his Christmas holiday to host top congressional leaders on Friday in a last-ditch bid to find an agreement.

Dealers seemed to take heart from reports that the House of Representatives would reconvene on Sunday, raising hopes of an 11th-hour compromise.

However, SMBC Nikko Securities general manager of equities Hiroichi Nishi told Dow Jones Newswires: "The market has factored in the possibility that talks will spill over to 2013.

"It remains a focus of attention, but sooner or later it's going to be solved."

On Wall Street, the Dow fell 0.14 per cent, the S&P 500 slipped 0.12 per cent and the Nasdaq shed 0.14 per cent.

Despite the uncertainty in Washington the dollar climbed against the yen, buying Y86.40 in early Asian trade, up from Y86.09 in New York late on Thursday, hovering around its highest level since August 2010.

The euro was at Y114.39 and $US1.3248, against Y113.97 and $US1.3235.

Investors have been selling the yen on expectations Japan's new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, will carry out his promises of more aggressive monetary easing and big government spending to lift inflation and kickstart the economy.

There was little movement on news that factory output for November was down a bigger than forecast 1.7 per cent month on month and a warning from the economy ministry that "industrial production is on a downward trend".

Oil prices rose, with New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February adding 39 US cents to $US91.26 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for February gaining 41 US cents to $US111.21 in the afternoon.

Gold was at $US1,661.40 at 1900 AEDT, compared with $US1,655.26 late Thursday.

In other markets:

- Taipei rose 51.09 points, or 0.67 per cent, to 7,699.50.

TSMC was 1.46 per cent higher at $Tw97.0 while Hon Hai Precision edged down 0.11 per cent to $Tw88.9.

- Manila added 0.31 per cent, or 17.84 points, to close at 5,812.73.

BDO Unibank gained 0.07 per cent to 72.80 pesos while SM Investments rose 0.22 per cent to 882 pesos.

- Wellington ended 0.38 per cent, or 15.46 points, higher at 4,080.90.

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Official acquitted over Magnitsky death

A Russian court has acquitted a prison official over the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009. Source: AAP

A MOSCOW court has acquitted a former top prison official accused of negligence over the death in detention of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009, an incident that sparked a diplomatic row with the United States.

Judge Tatiana Neverova of the Tverskoy district court on Friday delivered an innocent verdict for Dmitry Kratov, the former deputy head of the Butyrka jail. He had done everything in his power to help Magnitsky, she said.

The decision had been widely expected after prosecutors earlier this week unexpectedly said Kratov should be acquitted as there was no "cause-effect" relationship between his actions and the death.

Kratov was the only official remaining as a defendant over the death of Magnitsky, which his supporters say was instigated by top officials after the lawyer discovered a high-level tax scam.

Magnitsky's mother had earlier announced she would boycott the court hearing in protest at the decision by the prosecutors to call for the acquittal of Kratov.

"Participation in this court hearing would have been humiliating for me," Natalia Magnitskaya said in a statement published by her son's former employer, Hermitage Capital.

"I understand that everything has been decided in advance and everything has been pre-determined."

Magnitsky's plight caused international outrage and led to the passage of a US law that blacklists Russian officials allegedly involved in the death.

Moscow retaliated by introducing legislation banning the adoption of Russian children by American citizens, in the biggest diplomatic scandal in years between the two sides.

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed on Thursday that he would be signing the bill into law.

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Indian teen pressed to drop case

An Indian girl who was gang-raped has taken her own life after she was pressured to drop the case. Source: AAP

A 17-YEAR-OLD Indian girl who was gang-raped has taken her own life after police pressured her to drop the case and marry one of her attackers, police and a relative say.

Amid the ongoing uproar over the gang-rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi earlier this month, the latest case has again shone the spotlight on the police's handling of sex crimes.

One police officer has been sacked and another suspended over their conduct after the assault during the festival of Diwali on November 13 in the Patiala region in the Punjab, according to officials.

The teenager was found dead on Wednesday night after swallowing poison.

Inspector General Paramjit Singh Gill said on Thursday that the teenager had been "running from pillar to post to get her case registered", but officers failed to open a formal inquiry.

"One of the officers tried to convince her to withdraw the case," Gill, the police chief for the area, told AFP.

Before her death, there had been no arrests over her case although three people were detained on Thursday. Two of them were her alleged male attackers and the third was a suspected woman accomplice.

The victim's sister told Indian television that the teenager had been urged to either accept a cash settlement or marry one of her attackers.

"The police started pressuring her to either reach a financial settlement with her attackers or marry one of them," her sister told the NDTV network.

Meanwhile, the Press Trust of India reported that a police officer has been suspended for allegedly refusing to register a rape complaint in the northern state of Chhattisgar.

The woman and her husband later brought the case to the attention of a more senior officer and a hunt has been launched for her attacker, an auto rickshaw driver.

Official figures show that 228,650 of the total 256,329 violent crimes recorded last year in India were against women.

The real figure is thought to be much higher as so many women are reluctant to report attacks to the police.

During an address to the chief ministers of India's states on Thursday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged to bring in new laws to cover attacks on women.

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Japan whaling fleet leaves for Antarctica

Japan's whaling fleet has left port for the Southern Ocean on their annual hunt. Source: AAP

JAPANESE whaling vessels have left port bound for the Southern Ocean on their annual hunt of the marine mammals, a media report and Greenpeace say.

Citing the Fisheries Agency, Kyodo News reported on Friday three vessels had departed from the far-western port of Shimonoseki, while environmental group Greenpeace said the mother ship had left another port also in the country's west.

"The mother ship, Nisshin Maru, left Innoshima today," said Greenpeace Japan's executive director Junichi Sato on Friday.

"Today was virtually the last day when they could leave for the Antarctic Sea," he said, adding that the fisheries agency had announced that the departure would take place within this month.

The mother ship would join the three vessels that left Shimonoseki earlier in the day, Kyodo said.

The fleet plans to hunt up to 935 Antarctic minke whales and up to 50 fin whales through March, the fisheries agency said earlier.

Japanese authorities refused to confirm either departure to AFP.

"We do not disclose when the vessels leave or left for safety reasons," said an agency official said.

Coastguard officers will be aboard the ships to cope with possible harassment from anti-whaling activists, the coastguard and fisheries agency officials said earlier this month.

The fleet's departure comes weeks later than expected and days after a US court ordered militant environmental group Sea Shepherd to stay at least 500 yards (metres) from whaling vessels.

The injunction was ordered by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in the latest step in a legal battle between the anti-whaling group and Japanese authorities over vessels in the Southern Ocean.

It said Sea Shepherd and Canadian militant conservationist Paul Watson, who is wanted by Interpol, "are enjoined from physically attacking any vessel engaged by plaintiffs", including Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research.

In addition, they are banned from "navigating in a manner that is likely to endanger the safe navigation of any such vessel", said the order, issued on Monday.

"In no event shall defendants approach plaintiffs any closer than 500 yards (460 metres) when defendants are navigating on the open sea," it added. The joint plaintiffs are Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha, Ltd., Tomoyuki Ogawa and Toshiyuki Miura.

It follows the issuing in August of an arrest notice by Interpol for Watson, Sea Shepherd's founder, who jumped bail in Germany in July.

He had been arrested there on charges from Costa Rica relating to a high-seas confrontation over shark finning in 2002.

In a statement on its website, Sea Shepherd called the new US court ruling "the first shot of the season" by Japanese whalers.

Confrontations between the whalers and activists have escalated in recent years, and the Japanese cut their hunt short in early 2011 due to Sea Shepherd harassment.

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Japan bank giant buys stake in Vietnam

JAPAN'S biggest bank Mitsubishi UFJ has bought a 20 per cent stake worth $US743 million ($A719.37 million) in state-owned VietinBank, the largest merger or acquisition deal ever in Vietnam's banking sector.

The deal aims to boost "support for Japanese companies operating in Vietnam", Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ president Nobuyuki Hirano said on Thursday.

The bank also aims to tap Southeast Asian markets after seeing its profits tumble this year.

Last month, it reported profit in the six months to September had dived 58 per cent year-on-year to $US3.6 billion, due partly to declines in stock holdings.

VietinBank, or Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade, said the State Bank of Vietnam will still own the majority of its shares but described the deal as "the largest-ever M&A (mergers and acquisitions) transaction" in the country's banking sector.

It is also "the most important investment by a foreign partner in the banking sector in Vietnam", Le Tham Duong, a professor at the Banking University in Ho Chi Minh-City, told AFP on Thursday.

Japanese investment in Vietnam has increased in recent years, with another Japanese bank, Mizuho Financial Group Inc, buying a 15 per cent stake in Vietcombank, Vietnam's largest listed bank by market value, for nearly $US570 million in September 2011.

After a decade of rapid and chaotic bank liberalisation, Vietnam now has 42 domestic banks. Many are overloaded with toxic debt, much of it held by inefficient and poorly-managed state-owned companies.

The government has renewed a high-profile anti-corruption drive, focusing on the heads of failing state enterprises and wealthy banking tycoons to ease rising public dissatisfaction over the slowing economy.

It was forced to take action after a fraud scandal broke at Asia Commercial Bank, triggering a run on deposits and forcing Vietnam's central bank to provide emergency liquidity to the institution.

Analysts stress the need to woo more foreign players into the nation's crisis-hit banking sector to inject new cash and greater expertise.

In September, Moody's downgraded Vietnam's credit rating from "B1" to "B2", citing weaknesses in the banking system that may hit medium-term growth, and "an elevated risk" of a costly government banking bailout.

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UN staff leave Central African Republic

The UN ordered non-essential staff to leave the Central African Republic because of fears of unrest. Source: AAP

THE United Nations has ordered non-essential staff and families of its other workers to leave the Central African Republic because of fears of unrest triggered by a rebel advance.

Rebel coalition troops have stopped short of the capital, but UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said on Wednesday "their contradictory messages and their continued military offensive seem to indicate that they might be intent on taking Bangui."

"The temporary relocation is a precautionary measure to reduce our presence in the event the security situation further deteriorates in Bangui," he added.

The decision "will not detract from the ability of the United Nations to continue its support to the peace consolidation and development efforts in the Central African Republic," the UN spokesman said.

The United Nations has a major political mission in Central African Republic seeking to help the government overcome more than a decade of strife.

More than 200 people are involved in the withdrawal order, a UN official said.

The Seleka coalition is made up of rebels who say President Francois Bozize has not honoured peace accords signed between 2007 and 2011 that offered financial support and other help for insurgents who laid down their arms.

On Wednesday, the rebels urged government troops to lay down their weapons.

The insurgents are about 300 kilometres from Bangui and have said they do not plan to take the capital, where Bozizi is being helped by Chadian forces.

In the capital Bangui on Wednesday, angry protesters carrying clubs threw rocks at the French embassy, criticising the former colonial power for failing to do more to stem the rapid rebel advance.

The demonstrations began earlier in the day outside the US embassy before about 100 protesters then took to the French embassy, carrying pieces of cardboard with messages that read: "No to war! No to France!"

"It's France who colonised us - they should support us until the end. Unfortunately, they have done nothing. In this case, we are merely asking purely and simply that they leave our country," shouted one young demonstrator in front of the French mission in Bangui.

The protesters then began stopping cars to verify whether any foreigners were inside.

"These people have taken down the French flag from its pole and removed it," said Serge Mucetti, the French ambassador to Central African Republic.

"They have carried out stone-throwing in the area of the embassy and have broken windows. This kind of behaviour is unacceptable."

Rebel Colonel Djouma Narkoyo said on Wednesday that his forces had continued taking towns in recent days because government forces were attacking their positions.

But, he insisted via phone: "Our intention is not to take Bangui. We still remain open to dialogue."

Bangui residents were sceptical of the insurgents' intentions.

"We are afraid by what we see happening in our country right now," said Leon Modomale, a civil servant in the capital.

"It's as if the rebels are going to arrive in Bangui any moment now because there are too many contradictions in their language."

Meanwhile, the United States government also urged its citizens to leave the country and asked Bangui to protect its embassy.

"On December 25, the embassy issued an emergency message to all US citizens in the CAR strongly encouraging them to take advantage of commercial flights to depart the CAR until the security situation improved," the State Department said.

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Turnbull takes aim at 'soundbites'

MALCOLM Turnbull has accused the media and politicians of treating Aussie battlers with contempt by dumbing down complex issues into "one-line soundbites".

Speaking at the Woodford Folk Festival in Queensland, the federal member for Wentworth slammed broadcasters and politicians for using "glib one-liners" with the public.

"Broadcasters or politicians or writers who think that they are respecting struggle street, the battlers, by dumbing things down into one-line soundbites are not respecting them, they are treating them with contempt," Mr Turnbull told festival-goers on Thursday.

"It's our job above all in politics to tackle the big issues and to explain them.

"We have to deal in facts and not spin."

The standard of political debate in Australia had slipped in the past year, Mr Turnbull said.

He said politicians were being drawn into "the game of politics as opposed to the responsibility of dealing with the big issues of our time".

At one point in the 11-minute monologue, Mr Turnbull singled out Treasurer Wayne Swan for spreading "misinformation" in federal parliament.

Mr Turnbull also said it has never been easier for people in public life "to get away with telling lies".

"It has never been easier to get away with the glib one-liner," he added.

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Asian shares rise amid US fiscal concerns

ASIAN shares have risen, with Tokyo scaling a 21-month high thanks to a weaker yen, but pessimism lingers over the prospects of a US "fiscal cliff" deal by the year-end deadline.

Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 index on Thursday climbed 0.91 per cent, or 92.62 points, to 10,322.98, the highest level since March 11 last year when a massive quake struck Japan, sparking a tsunami and the worst atomic crisis in a generation.

The dollar rose to its highest level in more than two years against the yen as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office, raising expectations that the Bank of Japan would initiate more aggressive monetary easing under his leadership.

Seoul closed 0.26 per cent, or 5.10 points, higher at 1,987.35, and Sydney gained 0.28 per cent, or 12.8 points, to 4,648.0.

Hong Kong climbed 0.35 per cent, or 78.6 points, to 22,619.78, while Shanghai eased 0.60 per cent, or 13.23 points, to 2,205.90.

Regional gains came despite overnight falls on Wall Street as investors continue to fret over the looming fiscal cliff - a series of tax hikes and spending cuts worth some $US600 billion ($A580.92 billion) due to take effect in January.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.19 per cent to finish the session at 13,114.59.

The broad-market S&P 500 lost 6.83 points (0.48 per cent) to end at 1,419.83, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite shed 22.44 points (0.74 per cent) to 2,990.16.

US lawmakers are set to return to the negotiating table after the Christmas holidays in a last-ditch effort to reach a deal, with experts warning that going over the cliff could drive the world's biggest economy back into recession.

The Treasury Department said on Wednesday the government would hit its legal borrowing limit by Monday, setting in motion emergency measures to keep the government operating for several more weeks.

The Treasury's manoeuvring is designed to put off until February or March the prospect of a full-blown debt crisis, indicating that the US budget wrangling could continue well into 2013.

Despite those concerns the dollar made steady gains, hovering around Y85.79 in afternoon Tokyo trade, the highest level since September 2010.

The euro fetched Y113.57 and $US1.3242 compared with Y113.19 and $US1.3230 in New York late on Wednesday.

Oil prices were mixed, with New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, adding six US cents to $US91.04 a barrel. Brent North Sea crude for February delivery shed 10 US cents to $US110.97.

Gold was at $US1,657.30 at 1940 AEDT, compared with $US1,658.10 late on Wednesday.

In other markets:

- Taipei rose 0.19 per cent, or 14.22 points, to 7,648.41.

Hon Hai Precision rose 0.56 per cent to $Tw89.0 while TSMC was 0.42 per cent down at $Tw95.60.

- Wellington gained 0.19 per cent, or 7.63 points, to 4,065.44.

Telecom Corp was down 1.32 per cent at $NZ2.25, while Fletcher Building rose 1.81 per cent to $NZ8.45.

- Manila fell 0.65 per cent, or 37.94 points, to 5,794.89.

Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company slipped 0.77 per cent to 102.10 pesos, while BDO Unibank rose 0.62 per cent to 72.75 pesos.

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4 Afghan police killed with 'insider' help

FOUR Afghan policemen have been killed and two wounded in an insurgent attack assisted by an insider loyal to the Taliban, officials say.

Attackers stormed the police post at Tarin Kowt, a remote district in the southern province of Oruzgan, before dawn on Thursday and killed the officers as they slept, police spokesman Farid Ahmad Aiel told AFP.

One policeman who fled with the insurgents was believed to be a Taliban infiltrator who aided the attack, Aiel said.

"He had links with the Taliban and he helped the Taliban to attack the post. He had called them to attack while the other policemen were sleeping," the spokesman said.

Abdullah Hemat, a spokesman for the Oruzgan provincial administration, confirmed the incident and also blamed a Taliban infiltrator. One gunman was wounded during fighting and later arrested, he added.

"Insider" attacks by members of the police and army have become a major concern for the US-led NATO force deployed in Afghanistan.

The attacks have seen a dramatic surge this year, causing scores of casualties among international troops and among local security forces.

The Taliban claim that insider attacks are carried out by its supporters. Afghan authorities and their NATO allies say most are personally motivated.

On Monday a female police officer killed an American adviser in Kabul's police headquarters. Police said she was mentally ill.

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India announces gang-rape inquiry

INDIA'S government has ordered a special inquiry into the gang-rape of a student which sparked mass protests, as police announced the arrest of 10 men over another multiple sex assault.

While a wave of angry protests over the December 16 assault on the student in New Delhi subsided, news of a Christmas Eve gang-rape in rural Tamil Nadu again shone the spotlight on the frightening levels of violence against women.

The victim of the attack in Delhi is still fighting for her life while a policeman who was attacked during subsequent protests died of his injuries on Tuesday.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, who is also the government's top spokesman, said that a retired judge, Usha Mehra, had agreed to head a commission of inquiry.

The inquiry would "identify the lapses if any on the part of the police, or another authority or person that contributed to the occurrence, and fix responsibility for the lapses or negligence", he said after a cabinet meeting.

The victim of the Delhi gang-rape remains in a critical condition in hospital after suffering terrible injuries during her assault on a bus, which began when she and a male companion were picked up after a night out at the cinema.

Police and prosecutors say six men, who were drunk and joy-riding in an off-duty bus with tinted windows, took turns at raping the student before throwing her off the vehicle.

During her assault, the victim suffered serious intestinal injuries from being beaten with an iron rod.

All six alleged attackers have now been arrested and remanded in custody.

Official figures show that 228,650 of the total 256,329 violent crimes recorded last year were against women, with the number of rapes in the capital rising 17 per cent to 661 this year.

Thousands of people have taken to the streets since December 16 to demonstrate both against the levels of violence and also the notoriously slow criminal justice system.

Stung by criticism, the government has said it will consider introducing the death penalty for the worst attacks and promised to speed up the trial system.

In the attack in Tamil Nadu, 10 men overpowered the male companion of a 20-year-old woman in the Cuddalore district on Christmas Eve and then took turns to rape her for two hours.

"The victim had gone to the bank of a river with her boyfriend on Monday evening when the couple was attacked," district police chief A. Radhika told AFP by telephone from Cuddalore.

"We arrested the 10 suspects on Tuesday and charged them with rape and also booked them under (tribal protection) laws because she was a tribal," Radhika said.

The officer said the woman was in stable condition in hospital under "basic medical treatment".

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Asia remembers 2004 tsunami

MUTMAINAH sits quietly with her brother at a mass grave on the outskirts of Banda Aceh on Indonesia's Sumatra island, quietly reading their prayer books.

They lost five members of their family in the December 26, 2004, tsunami, which killed nearly a quarter of a million people.

"We left Aceh after the tsunami," she said in Siron on Wednesday on the eighth anniversary of the disaster. "We didn't reopen our shop in Banda Aceh and moved it to Medan."

The middle-aged siblings joined hundreds of others in mourning at mass graves and local mosques.

Music and prayers were performed throughout the day at a newly built tsunami museum in the hardest-hit region of Aceh, located on the northern tip of Sumatra.

The disaster, triggered by a 9.3-magnitude earthquake off Sumatra, killed an estimated 230,000 people in 13 countries on the Indian Ocean, including 170,000 in Aceh and on Nias Island.

Thousands attended a ceremony to mark the anniversary in the port of Malahayati in Krueng Raya, outside the provincial capital.

Red-and-white Indonesian flags flew at half-staff along the streets leading to the port.

Ogasawara Jun, who was in a group of eight Japanese teachers at the commemorations, said he could relate to what the Acehnese were feeling because both countries had suffered losses and devastation from tsunamis.

Jun - from Miyako in the northeastern prefecture of Iwate, which was hit by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami - said he came to Banda Aceh especially for the eight-year anniversary.

"We both have lost so much from strong quakes and tsunamis," he said. "The sadness and pain may never be lifted, even with the passing of time, but I believe that Indonesia and Japan can help each other to build a bright future."

On Thailand's resort island of Phuket, a multi-faith Buddhist, Christian and Muslim service was held early on Wednesday at the Tsunami Memorial Wall, near Mai Khao village.

The area was used to store thousands of bodies until they could be identified in the aftermath of the tsunami that killed up to 8000 people on the western seaboard of Thailand's southern provinces, about half of them foreign tourists.

"I hope the ceremony will bring encouragement to the victims' relatives and that they will feel better that we have never stopped caring about their lost ones," said Wirat Makaew, deputy chief of Mai Khao village, after laying a wreath at the memorial wall.

A candle-lit memorial service was also planned for sunset on the island's Patong beach.

Music, speeches, prayers and a minute of silence were scheduled to be observed by survivors and mourners.

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Gunman who killed US firemen left note

THE ex-convict turned sniper who killed two firefighters in New York state typed his goodbye note, describing his desire to "do what I like doing best, killing people", before setting ablaze the house where he lived with his sister.

Police chief Gerald Pickering said on Tuesday that the 62-year-old loner, William Spengler, brought plenty of ammunition with him for three weapons including a military-style assault rifle as he set out on a quest to burn down his neighbourhood just before sunrise on Christmas Eve.

And when firefighters arrived to stop him, he unleashed a torrent of bullets, shattering the windshield of the fire truck that volunteer firefighter and police lieutenant Michael Chiapperini, 43, drove to the scene. Fellow firefighter Tomasz Kaczowka, 19, who worked as an emergency dispatcher, was also killed.

Two other firefighters were struck by bullets, one in the pelvis and the other in the chest and knee. They remained in hospital in stable condition and were expected to survive.

On Tuesday, investigators found a body in the Spengler home, presumably that of the sister a neighbour said Spengler hated: 67-year-old Cheryl Spengler.

Spengler's penchant for death had surfaced before. He served 17 years in prison for manslaughter in the 1980 hammer slaying of his grandmother.

But his intent was unmistakable when he left his flaming home carrying a pump-action shotgun, a .38-calibre revolver and a .223-calibre semi-automatic Bushmaster rifle with flash suppression, the same make and calibre weapon used in the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 26.

"He was equipped to go to war, kill innocent people," the chief said of a felon who wasn't allowed to possess weapons because of his criminal past. It was not clear how he got them.

The assault rifle was believed to be the weapon that struck down the firefighters. He then killed himself as seven houses burned on a sliver of land along Lake Ontario. His body was not found on a nearby beach until hours afterward.

The motive was left unclear as well, Pickering said, even as authorities began analysing a two- to three-page typewritten rambling note Spengler left behind.

Pickering declined to reveal the note's full content or say where it was found. He read only one chilling line: "I still have to get ready to see how much of the neighbourhood I can burn down, and do what I like doing best, killing people."

It remained unknown what set Spengler off but a next-door neighbour, Roger Vercruysse, noted that he loved his mother, Arline, who died in October after living in the house in a neighbourhood of seasonal and year-round homes across the road from a lakeshore popular with recreational boaters.

Pickering said it was unclear whether the person believed to be Spengler's sister died before or during the fire.

"It was a raging inferno in there," Pickering said.

As Pickering described it and as emergency radio communications on the scene showed, the heavily armed Spengler took a position behind a small hill by the house as four firefighters arrived after 5.30am to extinguish the fire: two on a fire truck; two in their own vehicles.

Spengler had been charged with murder in his grandmother's death but pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter, apparently to spare his family a trial. After he was freed from prison, Spengler had lived a quiet life on Lake Road on a narrow peninsula where Irondequoit Bay meets Lake Ontario.

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Newtown residents consoled at Christmas

THIS Christmas was unlike any other in Newtown.

When a gunman wiped out nearly an entire elementary school class and killed students and adults in two other first-grade classrooms just 11 days before Christmas, it made it impossible for the holiday to be the same this year.

Some residents, like Joanne Brunetti, have found ways to console and help their grieving neighbours. Well-wishers from across the US are stopping by to do the same.

Brunetti watched over 26 candles that had been lit at midnight, just before Christmas Day, in honour of those slain at Sandy Hook Elementary School. She and her husband Bill signed up for a three-hour shift and erected a tent to ensure that the candle flames never went out throughout the day.

"You have to do something and you don't know what to do, you know? You really feel very helpless in this situation," she said on Tuesday.

"People have been wonderful to everybody in Newtown whether you were part of what happened or not. My thought is if we were all this nice to each other all the time maybe things like this wouldn't happen."

At a town hall memorial, Faith Leonard waved to people driving by and handed out Christmas cookies, children's gifts and hugs to anyone who needed it.

"I guess my thought was if I could be here helping out maybe one person would be able to spend more time with their family or grieve in the way they needed to," said Leonard, who drove to Newtown from Gilbert, Arizona, to volunteer on Christmas morning.

"I know they've been inundated with support and that's great but it's always nice to have a present to open on Christmas Day."

Julian Revie played Silent Night on a piano on the footpath at the downtown memorial. Revie, from Ottawa in Canada, was in the area visiting at the time of the shootings. He cancelled his plans to go to Australia, found a piano online and chose to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day playing for the people of Newtown.

"It was such a mood of respectful silence," said Revie, who planned to leave the piano behind. "But yesterday being Christmas Eve and today being Christmas Day, I thought now it's time for some Christmas carols for the children."

Many town residents attended Christmas Eve services on Monday evening and spent the morning at home with their families. Others attended church services in search of a new beginning.

At St Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church, attended by eight of the child victims of the massacre, the pastor told parishioners: "Today is the day we begin everything all over again."

Recalling the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, the Reverend Robert Weiss said: "The moment the first responder broke through the doors we knew good always overcomes evil."

"We know Christmas in a way we never ever thought we would know it," he said. "We need a little Christmas and we've been given it."

Police have yet to offer a possible motive for gunman Adam Lanza's rampage. The 20-year-old Newtown man, who lived at home, killed his mother in her bed before heading to the school and killing 20 children - all aged either six or seven - and six adults. He then killed himself.

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Russian ban on US adoption nears approval

RUSSIA'S upper house of parliament is set to vote on a bill barring Americans from adopting Russian children, the final legislative hurdle requiring clearance before the controversial law is sent to President Vladimir Putin for signing.

The highly contentious measure - retaliation for a US law sanctioning Russian officials implicated in the prison death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009 - has inflamed tensions between the two former Cold War rivals.

The draft legislation has already passed the three required readings in the State Duma lower house despite the protests over the measure from human rights advocates and even senior officials.

The Federation Council upper chamber - comprised exclusively of Putin allies and ruling party members - is expected to overwhelmingly approve the measure on Wednesday after it was backed in a committee meeting the day before.

Putin has not made clear explicitly if he will sign the law but comments by his spokesman on Tuesday appeared to indicate that he backed the measure.

"This will not lead to any infringement of international rights," Dmitry Peskov said.

"Russia is fully implementing the rights it has under international law."

The bill also includes a provision banning Russian political organisations that receive US funding.

In Washington, the White House said on Tuesday that "we deeply regret recent efforts to restrict civil society activity in Russia" and vowed to continue raising concerns over the proposed adoption ban.

"Children should have every opportunity to grow up in loving families," US President Barack Obama's national security staff said in a statement.

"Their fate should not be linked to unrelated political considerations."

The legislation came up this month after Obama signed into law the so-called Magnitsky Act, a measure paying tribute to the Russian lawyer who died in custody after exposing a $US235 million ($A227 million) police embezzlement scheme.

The US law blacklists Russian officials allegedly involved in his death.

Magnitsky's employer Hermitage Capital - once Russia's largest Western investment fund - and family both believe he was tortured to death.

But Russian prosecutors this week moved to drop charges against the only person on trial in the case.

They are also due to hold hearings on Thursday into a separate set of fraud charges that originally put Magnitsky under arrest.

The Russian MPs' response has agitated some cabinet members including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who has said banning adoption as an institution "is wrong" in a rare rebuke to the official position.

Putin's advisory human rights council also condemned the pending legislation as potentially unconstitutional.

Leading rights advocate Lyudmila Alexeyeva said she planned to appeal to the constitutional court should Putin sign the bill into law.

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Japan officials inspect Mitsubishi offices

DOZENS of Japan's transport ministry officials have inspected Mitsubishi Motors' offices after the automaker last week widened a recall to about 1.7 million vehicles.

The inspection of Mitsubishi's Tokyo headquarters and quality-control offices nationwide on Tuesday came after the ministry criticised the firm after it widened its oil leak recall.

"We are inspecting the company's offices to see whether the quality improvement program that Mitsubishi submitted to us is appropriate," ministry official Tsuneki Matsuo told AFP.

The inspection, which involves about 40 ministry staff, would include Mitsubishi dealerships in Japan, he added.

Two years ago, Mitsubishi recalled nearly 250,000 vehicles, adding about 300,000 more vehicles to the call back this year, after anonymous tips to the transport ministry prompted officials to order the firm to revisit the glitch.

Last week, the company said it was adding another 1.2 million vehicles to the recall, the latest in a string of safety and quality issues to affect Japan's auto sector.

A faulty engine part could trigger an oil leak and light the oil pressure gauge on the dashboard. In a worst-case scenario the engine could seize, the company said, adding that no accidents had been linked to the glitch.

The latest recall prompted a rebuke from transport ministry officials, who said last week they would meet with Mitsubishi officials to press them on the issue, saying the company had not made proper disclosures to the public.

It ordered the firm to report on the status of internal measures taken to prevent a recurrence of the problem, and said it would ask government-chosen experts to probe the recall.

In a statement on Tuesday, Mitsubishi said "we will fully co-operate with the on-site inspection and will make steady progress to prevent a repeat".

The transport ministry reprimand comes a decade after Mitsubishi admitted to keeping the ministry and public in the dark about tens of thousands of complaints filed by car owners dating back to the late 1970s.

There were some fatal accidents linked to those safety problems.

Bigger rivals Toyota, Nissan and Honda have recalled millions of vehicles in recent years, dealing a blow to their safety and quality image.

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Character actor Charles Durning dies

CHARLES Durning, a two-time Oscar nominee dubbed the king of the character actors for his skill in playing everything from a Nazi colonel to the pope, has died Monday at his home in New York City. He was 89.

Durning died on Monday of natural causes in his home in the borough of Manhattan, his longtime agent and friend Judith Moss told The Associated Press.

Although he portrayed everyone from blustery public officials to comic foils to put-upon everymen, Durning may be best remembered by movie audiences for his Oscar-nominated, over-the-top role as a comically corrupt governor in the 1982 film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

Many critics marvelled that such a heavyset man could be so nimble in the film's show-stopping song-and-dance number, not realising that Durning had been a dance instructor early in his career. He had met his first wife, Carol, when both worked at a dance studio.

The year after Best Little Whorehouse, Durning received another Oscar nomination, for his portrayal of a bumbling Nazi officer in the Mel Brooks classic To Be or Not to Be. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe as the harried police lieutenant in the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon.

He won a Golden Globe as best supporting TV actor in 1991 for his portrayal of John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald in the TV film The Kennedys of Massachusetts and a Tony in 1990 as Big Daddy in the Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Durning had begun his career on stage, getting his first big break when theatrical producer Joseph Papp hired him for the New York Shakespeare Festival.

He went on to work regularly, if fairly anonymously, through the 1960s until his breakout role as a small-town mayor in the Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning play That Championship Season in 1972.

He quickly made an impression on movie audiences the following year as the crooked cop stalking con men Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the Oscar-winning comedy The Sting.

Dozens of notable portrayals followed. He was the would-be suitor of Dustin Hoffman, posing as a female soap opera star in Tootsie; the infamous seller of frog legs in The Muppet Movie; and Chief Brandon in Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy. He played Santa Claus in four different movies made for television and was the pope in the TV film I Would Be Called John: Pope John XXIII.

"I never turned down anything and never argued with any producer or director," Durning told The Associated Press in 2008, when he was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Other films included The Front Page, The Hindenburg, Breakheart Pass, North Dallas Forty, Starting Over, Tough Guys, Home for the Holidays, Spy Hard and O Brother Where Art Thou?

Durning's rugged early life provided ample material on which to base his later portrayals. He was born into an Irish family of 10 children in 1923, in Highland Falls, New York, a town near West Point. His father was unable to work, having lost a leg and been gassed during World War I, so his mother supported the family by washing the uniforms of West Point cadets.

The younger Durning himself would barely survive World War II. He was among the first wave of US soldiers to land at Normandy during the D-Day invasion and the only member of his army unit to survive. He killed several Germans and was wounded in the leg. Later he was bayoneted by a young German soldier whom he killed with a rock. He was captured in the Battle of the Bulge and survived a massacre of prisoners.

In later years, he refused to discuss the military service for which he was awarded the Silver Star and three Purple Hearts.

Tragedy also stalked other members of his family. Durning was 12 when his father died, and five of his sisters were killed by smallpox or scarlet fever.

Durning and his first wife had three children before divorcing in 1972. In 1974, he married his high-school sweetheart, Mary Ann Amelio.

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Taxi driver dies in Victoria crash

The national holiday road toll has risen to eight, after a man died from a collision in Victoria. Source: AAP

VICTORIA'S holiday road toll has climbed to five following the death of a taxi driver in a crash in Geelong.

Investigators believe a Holden Commodore was travelling east on Ballarat Road, in the Geelong suburb of Hamlyn Heights, when it crashed into a stationary taxi at about 6.15pm (AEDT) on Tuesday.

The male driver of the taxi died at the scene while the driver of the Commodore was not hurt.

* The national road toll period runs from 0001 December 23, 2012, until 2359 January 3, 2013, local times, in line with the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Board.

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Weak yen gives Tokyo a Christmas boost

TOKYO stocks have closed 1.41 per cent higher as a weak yen helped boost the market which surged last week following a return to power for the country's conservatives.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index gained 140.06 points to 10,080.12, while the broader Topix index of all first-section shares added 0.64 per cent, or 5.29 points, to finish at 838.01 on Christmas Day.

A strong yen is negative for Japanese markets as it erodes exporters' revenue and makes their products less competitive overseas.

The yen had dipped against the dollar and the euro on Monday after Japan's incoming prime minister Shinzo Abe, whose Liberal Democratic Party won a landslide national election this month, renewed calls on the Bank of Japan to take further steps to ease monetary policy.

Abe at the weekend threatened to change a law guaranteeing the bank's independence if it did not agree to set a two-per cent inflation target.

He is pressing the bank to set the goal in a bid to drag the country out of the deflation that has haunted its economy for years.

Japanese markets were closed on Monday for a holiday.

In forex trading, the dollar stood at Y84.75, slightly lower than Y84.82 in New York on Monday, where the greenback had climbed to the Y85 level last seen in April 2011.

The euro fetched Y111.75 and $US1.3181 from Y111.87 and $US1.3183 in US trade.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended a shortened Christmas Eve session on Monday down 0.39 per cent at 13,139.08 amid pessimism about prospects of a deal to avert the US "fiscal cliff" due to take effect in January.

"The fact that the discussions apparently remain bogged down is a negative, but the overarching factor for stocks - a cheaper yen - trumps everything else," said Hiroichi Nishi, general manager of equities at SMBC Nikko Securities in Tokyo.

Divided US politicians have until the end of the year to reach a deal to avert the fiscal cliff, a combination of steep tax hikes and spending cuts which threatens to drag the world's largest economy into recession.

In Tokyo, Mitsubishi Motors gained 1.23 per cent to Y82, despite transport officials inspecting the company's offices across Japan on Tuesday after it widened a vehicle recall to about 1.7 million vehicles.

Sharp dived 7.45 per cent to Y273, a fall sparked by profit-taking after the stock's recent rally.

Chinese shares put on 2.53 per cent, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index jumping 54.56 points to 2,213.61 to close near a six-month high.

Industrial Bank gained 5.89 per cent to 16.36 yuan, while property developer Gemdale jumped 5.61 per cent to 6.40 yuan.

Taiwan's weighted index rose 1.34 per cent, or 101.05 points, to 7,636.57.

Leading smartphone maker HTC rose 1.99 per cent to Tw$282.5 while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. was 1.37 per cent higher at Tw$96.5.

Most Asian markets were closed.

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Toll rises to 10 as Vic taxi driver dies

THE national Christmas holiday road toll has risen to 10 with the death of a taxi driver in Victoria.

Police believe a Holden Commodore was travelling east on Ballarat Road in the Geelong suburb of Hamlyn Heights when it crashed into a stationary taxi about 6.15pm (AEDT) on Christmas Day.

The taxi driver died at the scene while the driver of the Commodore was not hurt.

Earlier in the day, a man believed to be in his 60s died in hospital from injuries he suffered in a crash on the Princes Highway at Dandenong on Monday night.

The deaths bring the Victoria toll to five since the holiday road period started on December 23.

In South Australia a motorist died when his car left the road and caught fire at Millicent, southeast of Adelaide. The death was the second in the state

NSW, Tasmania and Western Australia have each recorded one death.

* The national road toll period runs from 0001 December 23, 2012, until 2359 January 3, 2013, local times, in line with the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Board.

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Woman held for Queensland murder

A WOMAN will spend Christmas behind bars, accused of murdering a man in northwest Queensland.

Police say they were called to a home in Spence Street in Mount Isa in the early hours of Monday, where they found a 32-year-old man with a serious chest injury.

Attempts to revive the Townsville man were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

On Monday evening a 29-year-old Mount Isa woman was charged with the man's murder.

She was refused bail to appear before Townsville Magistrates Court on Boxing Day.

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Christmas flash flood fears for NSW

CHRISTMAS Eve has brought wild weather to much of NSW, with residents from Wollongong to Wilcannia warned to expect heavy rain and gusty winds overnight.

The Bureau of Meteorology said heavy rainfall, flash flooding and damaging winds could be in store for several towns over the next several hours.

A severe thunderstorm warning is in place for the Illawarra, south coast, central tablelands, southern tablelands, Snowy Mountains, ACT and parts of the Hunter, metropolitan, central west slopes and plains, south west slopes, lower western and upper western forecast districts.

Meanwhile, after a balmy Monday, Sydneysiders can expect to wake up to cooler weather on Christmas Day as a southerly change moves in.

The Bureau predicts a maximum temperature of 23 for the city and 24 in the west.

Sydney's western suburbs were pushing 40 on Christmas Eve, with Campbelltown and Horsley Park recording top temperatures of more than 38.

Forecaster Chris Webb said it would be rather windy along the coastal fringe on Tuesday, easing during the day with a shower of two expected here or there and the possibility of an early morning thunderstorm.

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